Bike helmet laws backfiring: doctor

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A COAST doctor has questioned laws forcing adults to wear helmets when cycling and he is not the only one.

Dr Grant Fraser works in the emergency rooms of Nambour General Hospital. He is often the first to see those inflicted with terrible injuries from a cycling accident.

Dr Fraser said it was incredibly rare for an adult to have serious head trauma from falling off a bike, even at high speed.

That level of injury, he said, was more likely to be caused by being hit by a car or a truck - catastrophic incidents for which a bicycle helmet offers little protection.

He said in a country grappling with obesity and inactive lifestyle, compulsory helmet laws were likely to discourage people from pedalling around the block.

"The best evidence is that it doesn't make any difference to serious head injury when riding a bicycle," Dr Fraser said.

"We're not sure why that is - whether people are more daring when they're wearing the helmet.

"I understand bike helmets are made to take 20kmh of force.

"And a lot of the impacts where a person has a serious head injury - the force is greater than that."

Dr Fraser said initial research used to back the mandatory laws were "deeply flawed and criticised".

Some newer findings, he said, showed that these laws could increase the chance of serious injury.

"On a society-wide basis, it seems as though the compulsory wearing of helmets is diminishing the number of people riding bicycles," he said.

"The number one health concern is heart attacks and obesity.

"Anything that can be done to decrease that would be a good thing."

In research conducted in 1996 by Armidale's University of New England, it showed even with 75% more cyclists wearing helmets when the laws were introduced in some states, the proportion of head injuries for cyclists fell by only 13%.

Dr Fraser said the evidence supported children wearing helmets to reduce injury, but overall it did not support adults being forced to do the same.